California crab season will end six weeks early. What does it mean for Sacramento?

Got your fix of crab already? If not, you’ll want to act quickly.

Dungeness crab season will end June 1, six weeks earlier than previously anticipated, in an effort to protect humpback and blue whales as well as leatherback turtles, California Department of Fish and Wildlife director Charlton Bonham announced Tuesday.

The season was slated to run through July 15, but whales and turtles are already migrating back off the California coast after breeding in the south over the winter. The larger animals can become entangled in Dungeness crab traps and lines.

Yet the tasty crustacean, a Northern California favorite at Thanksgiving and Christmas around the start of the season, was already driven from several menus due to rising prices.

Scott’s Seafood Roundhouse in Folsom stopped selling whole Dungeness crab as a market-rate special after paying $9.75 per pound three weeks ago, owner Suzanne Cook said. Shelled crab from Sacramento-based Pacific Fresh Seafood Company is still available in cocktails and salads.

Prices normally rise toward the end of the season as the Pacific Ocean’s bounty of large crabs shrinks, Cook said. A shortened season might allow those midsized crabs to further develop, leading to better meals down the road.

“We sell so much of our other products, and honestly we don’t always have crab available. It’s just when the price is in a good spot,” Cook said. “Honestly, if they do shorten the season for that reason, it’s just going to be better for us in the future.”

Home cooks won’t be affected much, either. Most grocery stores don’t sell crab this late in the season, said Chelsea Minor, corporate director of consumer and public affairs for Raley’s.

“This will not have an impact for Raley’s because of where we source our crab,” Minor wrote in an email. “The California season for larger commercial crab boats starts in the middle (of) November and ends (in) late January. This is a typical (time frame) for us.”

This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.